News Releases

Lander bids farewell to partner in international education

March 07, 2011

Dr. Roger Richardson, right, talks with students at a recent tea in his honor at Lander University. In six years, Richardson, recruited 34 Lander students for a semester of study at the University of Winchester in England where he was a faculty member. He is retiring as Winchester's director of Internationalization at the end of this academic year.

Dr. Roger Richardson, right, talks with students at a recent tea in his honor at Lander University. In six years, Richardson, recruited 34 Lander students for a semester of study at the University of Winchester in England where he was a faculty member. He is retiring as Winchester's director of Internationalization at the end of this academic year.

Roger Richardson has visited Lander University each semester for the past six years recruiting students to spend a semester at the University of Winchester in England as part of Lander's Study Abroad program. And he has been very successful having persuaded 34 students to accept his invitation.

Richardson, professor emeritus of history at Winchester, is retiring as the university's director of Internationalization at the end of the academic year. Recently, he made his final official visit to Lander and met with students and faculty.

Before concluding his visit, he was the guest of honor at a farewell tea hosted by Lander president Daniel Ball and his wife, Marge. Faculty members and many Lander students who had spent a semester at Winchester turned out to wish him well.

Ball said, "Richardson has taken a persistent interest in Lander and, as a result, we have adopted him as one of our own."

DeWitt Stone Jr., director of Lander's Study Abroad Program, said Richardson, encouraged and inspired students. "He is very personable and had good relationships with our students at Winchester."

Richardson said his job was more than recruitment. "My role has been to promote and nurture students and act as their host and adviser." He described himself as a passionate believer in international education. "Students get a direct benefit of the presence of students from another country."

Stone, who is also chair of Lander's Arboretum Committee, said an English oak tree donated by Lander faculty and students to honor Richardson will be planted near Laura Lander Hall in the spring.